Drawing on history, Putin announces annexation of Crimea

MOSCOW
— President Vladimir V. Putin reclaimed Crimea as a part of Russia on
Tuesday, reversing what he described as a historic injustice made by the
Soviet Union 60 years ago and brushing aside international condemnation
that could leave Russia isolated for years to come....

Since
Russia’s stealthy takeover of Crimea began, Mr. Putin has said very
little in public about his ultimate goals. His only extensive remarks
came in a news conference
with a pool of Kremlin journalists in which he appeared uncomfortable,
uncertain and angry at times. In the grandeur of the Kremlin’s walls on
Tuesday, Mr. Putin sounded utterly confident and defiant.

Reaching
deep into Russian and Soviet history, he cast himself as the guardian
of the Russian people, even those beyond its post-Soviet borders,
restoring a part of an empire that the collapse of the Soviet Union had
left abandoned to the cruel fates of what he described as a procession
of hapless democratic leaders in Ukraine.

“Millions
of Russians went to bed in one country and woke up abroad,” he said.
“Overnight, they were minorities in the former Soviet republics, and the
Russian people became one of the biggest — if not the biggest — divided
nations in the world.”

He
cited the 10th-century baptism of Prince Vladimir, whose conversion to
Christianity transformed the kingdom then known as Rus into the
foundation of the empire that became Russia. He called Kiev “the mother
of Russian cities,” making clear to the world that he considered
Ukraine, along with Belarus, to be countries where Russia’s own
interests would remain at stake regardless of the fallout from Crimea’s
annexation....